On Flamenco

I've been watching Carlos Saura's three great Flamenco movies (from the 1980s): Carmen, El Amor Brujo (Love the Magician), and Bodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding). These are among the best dance movies ever filmed, and star the spectacular Antonio Gaddes and Cristina Hoyos. All three films are superb – I'd recommend watching Carmen first (if you can get a hold of it), just because the music is more familiar to most of us.

My viewing got me thinking about Flamenco dancing. I'm no expert, although when I was in Spain a year and a half ago (it seems like forever) I went to 3 or 4 flamenco shows.

Flamenco – it seems to me – expresses the hostility, anger and fear inherent in sex and love. It shows the dance between the sexes as violent and hostile. Flamenco, with its aggressive stomping and macho posturing, demonstrates passion and possessiveness. Compare it to tap dancing – say, Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell in “Broadway Melody of 1940”. Flamenco shows the dance of love to be frightening – passionate, serious and aggressive. Tap dancing (very similar in some ways) shows the dance of love to be light, airy, and amusing.

I'm not sure whether this has anything to do with cultural differences between Spain (I believe Flamenco came out of gypsy Spain, originally) and America.